FREE USE in Primitive World

Chapter 283: Chapter 283: Nine Moons

They walked in a comfortable, intimate silence, their shoulders occasionally brushing as the wooden path narrowed between the massive roots. The casual physical proximity sent a slight tingle through Sol.

Out of her bulky armor, smelling faintly of sweet, crushed wildflowers and fresh leather, Kira was breathtakingly beautiful. The moonlight caught the tips of her hair and perfectly illuminated the sharp, elegant curve of her jawline. It was a serene, deeply romantic atmosphere, a stark, almost impossible contrast to the brutal, blood-soaked reality of the jungle just beyond the walls.

Enjoying the cool night breeze and the company, Sol finally let his guard down completely and looked up to simply gaze at the moon.

He stopped dead in his tracks on the wooden ramp.

His breath completely caught in his throat, his silver-crimson eyes widening in absolute, paradigm-shattering shock.

He wasn’t looking at the moon.

Hanging in the vast, star-speckled, impossibly clear expanse of the night sky, dominating the heavens with an awe-inspiring, terrifying majesty, were nine distinct moons.

They were massive, looming over the horizon like watchful eyes. They varied wildly in size, color, and orbital distance. To the far left was a colossal, blood-red sphere that seemed to actively pulse with an angry, internal, molten heat.

Just above it was a jagged, shattered crescent of pale, sickly green light. Right in the absolute center of the sky hung a perfectly smooth, blindingly bright silver orb, flanked symmetrically by smaller satellites of deep violet, and icy blue.

The sheer gravitational impossibility of the celestial display was breathtaking. It was a sky straight out of a high-fantasy, cosmic fever dream.

He had been so incredibly focused on brutal survival, on fighting ants, evading badgers, surviving tribal politics, and mastering his core, that he had almost forgotten about them.

Seeing him abruptly stop and stare upward, his mouth slightly open, Kira paused a few steps ahead. She turned back on the wooden ramp, following his intense gaze up into the starry expanse. The soft celestial light washed over her beautiful features, reflecting perfectly in her stormy feline eyes.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Sol breathed, his voice laced with genuine awe at the sheer scale of the universe above him.

Kira didn’t look at the sky. She turned her head, looking directly back at Sol’s striking profile. She studied the sharp, handsome lines of his face, the mesmerizing, glowing silver-crimson of his pupils under the starlight, and the profound, powerful, otherworldly presence he radiated under the celestial light.

“Yes,” Kira whispered softly, her voice barely audible over the distant drums and crackling fires below. “It is indeed beautiful.”

Feeling the sudden, intense heat of her gaze on the side of his face, Sol slowly turned his head. Their eyes locked in the dim light. The romantic tension immediately spiked through the roof, thick enough to cut with his new obsidian spear. He couldn’t help but let out a slight, awkward cough to break the sudden, overwhelming intensity.

Caught staring so openly, Kira’s cheeks immediately flushed a brilliant, deep crimson that was entirely visible even in the dim light. She quickly snapped her head away, looking straight up into the sky to violently hide her embarrassment, her pointed ears twitching nervously.

“Y-yes,” Kira stammered quickly, desperately trying to recover her stoic composure and failing miserably. “The moon is really beautiful today. The light is very clear tonight.”

Sol blinked. The lingering romantic tension was instantly shattered, replaced by the sharp, analytical precision of his mind.

He looked at her flushed face, then looked rapidly back up at the sky.

The moon. Singular.

He had distinctly, undeniably heard the translated keyword in his mind. She didn’t say ’the moons’. She didn’t say ’the sky’. She used the absolute singular noun.

“The moon?” Sol repeated slowly, his brow furrowing slightly, his voice dropping into a careful, calculated tone. He decided to probe the anomaly further, keeping his tone perfectly casual so as not to alarm her. “So… which moon do you like the most?”

Kira looked back at him, a flicker of genuine, unfeigned confusion crossing her beautiful features. She tilted her head slightly, her eyes searching his for the punchline of a joke she didn’t understand.

“Which… moon?” Kira asked, sounding genuinely perplexed by his strange phrasing. She seemed to think about it for a second, a small frown appearing on her lips as she assumed he was asking a strangely worded, esoteric question about the specific lunar cycles taught by the Shamans. “Well, I love the full moon the most, of course. When the cycle is at its absolute peak, it really illuminates the whole world, making everything below so bright and beautiful. It makes night-hunting much easier.”

A cold, electric shock of realization ran straight down Sol’s spine,almost freezing the blood in his veins.

Now, Sol was absolutely, undeniably sure. She was only seeing one moon.

If she could physically see the spectacular, terrifying, impossible display of nine multi-colored celestial bodies dominating the heavens above them, she would never have answered like that. She would have immediately talked about the massive red one, or the shattered green crescent, or the cluster of violets dancing around the silver core. She wouldn’t have defaulted to a standard description of lunar phases.

Seems like the people of the Great Orrath… or at least, the native human population of the Veynar tribe… were biologically, psychologically, or magically blind to the true nature of their own sky.

Sol stared intensely at the nine massive orbs hanging above him, the sheer scale of the world’s mysteries suddenly expanding exponentially in his mind. He wasn’t just al transmigrator, his very perception of reality was fundamentally, terrifyingly divorced from the natives.

Not believing something so incredibly strange and massive could be true without absolute, irrefutable confirmation, Sol turned to face Kira fully. The romantic atmosphere of the Feline Spire was entirely gone, completely replaced by a burning, insatiable, almost frantic curiosity. He decided to stop probing carefully and ask the question openly.